Tomorrowish · Guides · Privacy
Court Copy
Print one text conversation as a PDF: from an iPhone backup on your Windows PC or Mac (encrypted or not), or from an Android “SMS Backup & Restore” file. Each message gets its sender, date and time, reactions, edits, and pictures, on numbered pages with a cover sheet that says where it all came from.
Nothing is uploaded. Your backup is read by this page, inside your browser, on your computer. It keeps working with the network unplugged once it has loaded. What runs where
1 Choose what to read
iPhone backup folder
The folder Finder, iTunes or Apple Devices made when you backed up the phone to this computer.
Android: SMS Backup & Restore
The .xml file the free “SMS Backup & Restore” app saved from the phone.
Messages database
A chat.db (Mac) or sms.db file you already have. Text only, no pictures.
(made-up people; the sample's backup password is fixture-pass-123)
Where is my iPhone backup?
- Windows, iTunes from apple.com:
%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\(paste that into the folder picker's address bar). - Windows, iTunes or Apple Devices from the Microsoft Store:
%USERPROFILE%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup\ - Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/. macOS protects this folder, so the easy way is: in Finder, select the iPhone in the sidebar, click Manage Backups…, Control-click the backup, choose Show in Finder, and copy that folder to your Desktop. Then choose the copy here. - Each backup is a folder with a long name of letters and numbers. You can choose that folder or the
Backupfolder above it. - No backup yet? Connect the iPhone, open Finder (Mac) or Apple Devices / iTunes (Windows), choose Back up all of the data on your iPhone to this computer, tick Encrypt local backup and set a password you will remember, then Back Up Now. Encrypted or not?
Your browser may say it will “upload” the files. Nothing leaves your computer: “upload” is the browser's word for letting this page read them.
This folder holds more than one backup. Which phone?
2 Unlock the encrypted backup
Checking the password. This takes a few seconds on most computers, up to a minute on older ones.
3 Pick the conversation
4 Make the PDF
Redact (optional)
Redacted text is left out of the file entirely and a black box marks the spot. It is not a box drawn over text that is still there.
What the PDF contains
- A cover sheet: the people in the conversation and their numbers or emails, the dates covered, how many messages, the time zone every time is shown in, the device and backup date, the source file and its SHA-256 fingerprint, and when and with what the PDF was made.
- One entry per message: who sent it, the date and time, iMessage, SMS or MMS, delivered and read times when the phone recorded them, reactions attached to the message they react to, replies, edits with the earlier wording, and unsent messages marked as unsent.
- Pictures printed in place (with file name and size); videos, voice notes and other files listed by name and size.
- “Page 1 of N” on every page; optional page stamps (like CC000001) for numbering exhibits; optional redaction.
- Also as CSV (for a spreadsheet) and plain text, with the exact text of every message.
Court Copy prints what is in the file you give it and says where it came from. Courts, lawyers and the other side decide what they accept and how; this page is not legal advice.
Price
Free: any conversation, the first 25 messages, marked “free preview”. Full export: $19 once for every export you make.